Bulletproof Skin
by The Batchild
Summary: Following the events of Ain't No Rest For the Wicked, Alianna struggles to survive, while Kirk and Sindari struggle to remain calm.


As before, I do not own **Star Trek **or any of the affiliated media. I still own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck and I own this plot. This is a one chapter fic that comes right after **Ain't No Rest For the Wicked**. I made this a separate fic and not just an epilogue because it's so different from the fic that it deserved to be separate. Rated for language and violence. Enjoy!

* * *

**Bulletproof Skin...  
**_... to keep you alive. _

* * *

Alianna didn't open her eyes.

As the _Enterprise_, under the control of Spock, pulled away from the exploding Klingon vessel, Bones and his team set to work on the Lieutenant Commander, sedating her and making it impossible for her to open her eyes or to fight on her own. The young woman disappeared behind a flurry of working hands as they began the involved process of pulling the rubble from her stomach and keeping her from bleeding out all over sick bay. The state of the elder Lordeck had her sister and Captain wound tight and Nurse Chapel was forced to usher them from sick bay, shutting and locking the doors behind them to keep them out.

They might have found another solution if they had known the racket Sindari would cause.

Sindari pounded her fists against the door for several minutes while Kirk leaned against the bulkhead, his blue eyes wide and staring at the floor, lost in his thoughts about his head security officer. The redheaded weapons officer shrieked and rounded on the only other person within yelling distance when pounding on the door didn't work.

"How can you just stand there?" she bellowed, her face flushing until it almost matched her hair; Kirk could almost see the smoke coming out her nostrils. "You're the damn Captain! _Make _them let us in! Ali is _dying_! I have to see her; I have to be with her!" Sindari screamed. Upon getting no response from the Captain, Sindari rounded on the door again. "GOD DAMN IT, LET ME IN!" When she still didn't get an answer, she spun on her heel and paced for a moment before returning to the door and glaring over her shoulder at the Captain. "Get me in there Kirk!" she demanded.

Kirk was silent.

Sindari stomped closer until she was nearly touching the young Captain, her face screwed up in anger. Her face only got redder. "Why won't you do anything? Ali needs us!" she shrieked in his face, punctuating each word by jabbing her finger into his chest. When he still didn't respond, Sindari screamed wordlessly and went back to pounding on the door, angry tears finally starting to stream down her cheeks. Her green eyes were dark with emotion and her fists were starting to turn red, but she kept pounding. "Let me in..." she sobbed as she fell against the door.

"Who was that man on the Klingon ship?" Kirk asked suddenly, his voice quiet and sounding very unlike what it normally did. It was clear he was trying to find other things to think about.

"What?" Sindari rounded on Kirk again but stayed closer to the door. She sniffed, tears still streaking down her cheeks. She was trying to stop her tears.

"The man that Ali shot. Who was he?"

Sindari fell back against the doors to sick bay and stared at the opposite wall. She slowly slid down to her butt and her mouth started working, but no words were coming out. Kirk waited silently for her to find her voice. "Well," she finally croaked. "It was our father..." Sindari blinked, as if processing that thought for the first time and her eyes started moving back and forth, like she was looking for something on the floor of the hall. "He was our father... Ali shot our Dad... And I don't know why..." Sindari pulled her knees to her chest and pressed her face into them. Kirk could hear soft sobs issuing from the ball his weapons officer had rolled herself into.

"He was your Dad?" Kirk asked, only the barest hint of surprise making its way into his voice.

"Yeah... I don't know why he was there... Or why Ali shot him... She has to live... She's got to tell me what happened..." Sindari kept talking, her voice quiet and her eyes unfocused, but her words stopped making sense.

Jim Kirk finally pushed himself off the wall and began pacing back and forth in front of the door. He ran his hands over his hair and then shoved them in his pockets so he wouldn't fidget. The young Captain's mind was back in his quarters, the night after he had taken Alianna and Sindari over to the _Marissa_ to retrieve their things, the night when Alianna had told him about her family and about how she'd ended up on serving on a Starfleet vessel before she was officially part of the crew. He remembered her saying that her parents hadn't cared too much about her and how emotional she'd been after seeing them on Andoria. He remembered her saying that she had never liked her father, never cared for him. But nothing she had said indicated that she would shoot him, that she wanted him dead.

His thoughts mingled around those memories for a few moments before shifting to Alianna herself, and more specifically, Alianna as she had looked lying on the floor of the Klingon vessel, bleeding and vulnerable. The fire in her green eyes had been nearly out and her grip on his hand, when she'd feebly tried to find purchase, had been so weak when she had always appeared so strong. Idly, Kirk touched the fresh brace on his nose; she'd certainly been strong enough to break his nose again, to push herself forward to the bridge of the ship, even stabbed in the leg and beaten to hell by a giant Klingon. He thought of how much it had hurt when he'd realized she was dying, that she might not make it.

His blue eyes turned to the door, focusing above Sindari's head. Alianna Lordeck could not die.

"He was an ass," Sindari said in a venomous voice.

Kirk pulled his gaze from the doors to the medical bay and looked down at Sindari, who was looking up at him, her green eyes red-rimmed and puffy, but narrowed in anger nonetheless. "What?"

"Our Dad. He was an ass. He treated Alianna and I like we weren't there and when he had to pay attention to us, he was always trying to make us into his image of perfect children. He never cared about what we were going through, or what had happened that day while he was at work... Ali constantly rebelled and he hated her for it. And then he hated me when I ran off and joined Starfleet. He blamed Ali for that. Parents aren't supposed to hate their kids." Sindari climbed to her feet again, so she could better look Kirk in the eye, but her arms remained wrapped around herself, as if she was protecting herself or keeping herself warm. "We never knew what was going on with him, so... it's not that farfetched that he had this whole plot..." She hung her head, stared at her boots for a moment. "But... how could Ali just... just shoot him? He was still our Dad..."

"I'm sure she wouldn't have shot him for just any reason."

"I know, but..." Sindari narrowed her eyes at her feet and then looked up at Kirk, her green eyes alight with anger that reminded Kirk very strongly of Alianna; it kind of hurt. "How could this happen?" she asked, her voice rising slightly.

Kirk had gone silent again.

"She can't die, Kirk, she _cannot _die." Sindari started shaking, her hands grasping at her arms in some feeble attempt to keep herself under control. "She can't die..." And Sindari was off again, muttering to herself, and she had started pacing again, walking almost until the end of the hall and then back again.

"Bones won't let her die," Kirk said, his voice confident.

"How can you be sure?" Sindari yelled. "How can you be positive that he'll be able to save her? She was almost cut in fucking half!" She approached the young Captain and once again jammed her finger against his chest; tears were streaming down her cheeks again in torrents. "She's going to die, Kirk! She's going to die! My sister is going to die!" Her voice dissolved into fitful sobs, her words garbled and unintelligible.

Kirk grabbed Sindari, his hands around her upper arms, and he forced the young officer to look at him. "Sindari!" he barked. "Alianna will survive this!"

"How do you know?"

"BECAUSE SHE HAS TO!"

A heavy silence settled around the hall. Sindari had stopped sobbing and was staring at Kirk with wide, very surprised eyes, and her mouth was hanging slightly open. Kirk was still holding onto Sindari, and his eyes were wide as well. He was surprised at the ferocity of his declaration, at his need for Alianna to survive. He wasn't sure why he needed her around, but he did know that if she was gone, than something would be missing. It had only been about a month, but... she couldn't just die... could she? Sindari stared at her Captain for a moment longer and then she pulled away, letting Kirk withdraw as well.

"Kirk..."

He held up his hand, keeping Sindari from saying anything. Kirk turned his back on the young woman and took several long, deep breaths. "Bones is the best," he said.

Sindari just nodded, accepting the Captain's desire to move on from that topic. She went back to sitting beside the door to the medical bay, staring as if she would suddenly develop X-Ray vision if she stared hard enough at the doors. Kirk settled himself against the wall opposite the doors with his knees bent in front of him and his arms hung loosely across them; his blue eyes were glued to the floor. The silence returned and it only grew more tense as it progressed.

Eventually, Sindari reached her limit and asked, "Why... why are you so worried about Alianna, Kirk?"

The Captain looked up at Sindari and frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I get that you're worried because she's a member of your crew or whatever but... you're down here instead of the bridge where you probably should be, so what's going on?"

Kirk was silent for a few seconds. He could tell by the set of her shoulders and jaw, and by the tone of her voice that Sindari was trying to pass the time, to think about something other than her sister lying on the operating table twenty five feet away. But he wasn't sure what to say. "I... don't know why, okay?"

"Do you care about my sister?" Sindari asked, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

"Yes."

Sindari visibly started at the abruptness of Kirk's answer. "Well... I don't know what to say to that."

Kirk returned his eyes to the floor and then rose to his feet in one fluid motion. "I'm going to check on things," he said. "I can't sit here anymore. I'll... check in later."

Sindari nodded and Kirk took off. He navigated the hallways at a speed faster than was necessary and he moved without a destination in mind. He was just walking because it was something to do and it was better than just sitting there in the hall, waiting for some news about Alianna. He found himself walking towards Alianna's quarters and then changed course and headed for his quarters, but there was nothing down there for him either. Before long, he found himself on course for the bridge, by now a familiar path for his feet and he kept going. He wasn't surprised to find himself walking this way and he went with it, deciding it really would be prudent to check on the crew, on his ship. In the turbolift however, Kirk leaned against the wall and sighed heavily, trying hard to force himself to think about anything other than Alianna.

That was not the cards though. As soon as he stepped onto the bridge, Spock turned and asked, "Has there been any news about Lieutenant Commander Lordeck?"

Kirk sighed again as he came to a stop beside the centre chair. "No, there hasn't."

Sensing the tone in his Captain's voice, the Vulcan science officer switched topics. "Everyone on board the _Raven _and the _Destiny _survived, and the _Raven _returned to survey the wreckage. They will be reporting to Starfleet. Admiral Hackett has contacted us and asked us to return to Starfleet Headquarters to make our report in person. The ship is also due in dry dock for repairs."

Jim Kirk took all this in stride, nodding along as Spock spoke. "Okay."

"We are on course for Earth, Captain, and will arrive in two days, provided the repaired warp engines hold."

Kirk continued to nod.

"Mister Scott is keeping an eye on the engines as well as the other systems and is reporting in every hour at least."

"Good."

"Captain."

Kirk looked up into the Vulcan's face and tried to appear like his thoughts were on the job. "Yes Mister Spock?"

"There is nothing demanding your attention at this moment, if you would like to return to sick bay and check on Alianna," he said quietly, the Vulcan lifting one eyebrow in what was quickly becoming a characteristic expression. Kirk started to protest, but it was useless around someone as intuitive as Spock. "There is something pertaining to Alianna I would like to discuss, Captain."

"Walk with me back to sick bay then," Kirk said, admitting that he was keener on returning to the medical bay than doing anything on the bridge.

Leaving the command temporarily in Sulu's hands, Kirk and Spock headed into the turbolift and started the journey back to sick bay. "I once offered to teach Alianna how to better control her emotions and she refused. However, I believe she would benefit from having some training and I have been in contact with Spock Prime, who, as he is more in tune with his human side, would be better suited to help Alianna." As they exited the turbolift and headed down the hall that would take them to the medical bay, Spock turned to the Captain and said, "I would like you to present the idea of spending her recovery time with Spock Prime to Alianna."

Kirk was silent for several seconds as they walked. "You think she's going to get through this then?" he asked.

Spock fixed his Captain with the raised-eyebrow look again. "Captain, I have never met anyone as stubborn as Alianna Lordeck," he said as if that answered the question.

In a way it did. Alianna certainly was stubborn, and if she had any control over if she made it through her ordeal, she would be awake in no time. The thought made the corner of Kirk's mouth lift in a smirk. "You're right Spock..." They had made it to sick bay now and Sindari was still sitting by the door, but had curled into a corner by a bulkhead and was slumped against the wall. "I will talk to her about it," Kirk said. "If..."

Spock nodded before the Captain had to finish that sentence and then returned to the bridge.

"Has there been any word?" Kirk asked.

Sindari rolled her head so she could look up at the young Captain; his golden tunic looked unusually bright in the lighting in the hall. "No," she said. "I haven't heard anything. At all."

"It's only been about an hour," Kirk said, fishing for comforting words.

The younger Lordeck gave a heavy sigh and a somewhat bitter laugh. "Yeah. Longest hour of my life." She tilted her head back against the wall. "I've screamed and yelled and banged on the door and tried to think of other things... I think I'm going to go to my room and try to get some rest..." She pushed herself to her feet and gazed tiredly at the Captain, her bright green eyes dull and full of sorrow. "Will you stay here?"

Kirk would have stayed even if Sindari hadn't asked, but the emotion and desperation in her voice made him want to stay even more. He nodded slowly and gave her a smile he hoped was reassuring.

* * *

Sindari made it back to her quarters, but didn't make it to her bed. As the doors slid closed behind her and locked, she dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap and cried hard, her chest heaving and her sobs loud and ragged. She pounded her fists against the floor and cried until she couldn't cry anymore and her throat was rough and sore for sobbing and choking on her tears. Drained and hollow-feeling, Sindari stretched out on the grey carpet of her quarters and stared up at the ceiling, trying not to see Alianna's face staring back at her.

Ever since they had been little girls, Alianna had watched out for Sindari. Being human children on Andoria had been hard and they had been teased—mostly for not having antennae—but Alianna had always stuck up for her little sister and had taken the beatings when the bigger kids had tried to hurt Sindari. When they were neglected by their parents and they were left to fend for themselves, Alianna had made food. She'd been the one to read Sindari stories when she was scared, the one to hold her when she cried... Alianna had pretty much raised her younger sister and when she had run away to the _Marissa_, it had felt like she'd ripped out part of Sindari and taken it with her, but at the same time, Sindari had been super happy for her sister because she'd finally been able to escape, she'd finally been able to pursue the life she'd wanted.

And now it might be coming to a end.

"She's too young... I still need her..." Sindari sobbed dryly and grasped at her chest as pain laced through it. She'd been crying too hard for too long. She closed her eyes and took several long deep breaths.

The harsh noise of the intercom startled her awake. Apparently she's passed out on the floor. She wasn't sure how long it had been, but she pushed herself into a sitting position. "Yeah?"

_"Sin, get down to sick bay."_

Bones sound tired and drained. Sindari heard the intercom click off and then took off like a shot, running through the halls, taking the turbolifts—which seemed to go way too slow—and ended up outside sick bay, doubled over and breathing heavily, trying to get enough air to stop herself from hyperventilating. Kirk and Bones were standing in front of the door, which was once again closed.

"What is it? How long have I been out? Is she okay? Is Ali dead?"

Bones wrapped his hands around Sindari's upper arms and pulled her towards him, the sudden motion making her look up at him. "Sin, breathe," he ordered repeatedly until she obeyed. "You've been out for about four hours. We've finished operating on Alianna and she's stable for now."

"For now? What does that mean?"

"It means..." Doctor McCoy looked over his shoulder at Kirk, who gave a barely perceptible nod. "It means that at any moment, she make take a turn and there's nothing I can do about it."

Sindari sobbed, but there was a smile on her face. Her green eyes lit up and she threw her arms around Bones, kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you Bones," she breathed.

He returned her embrace briefly, until he seemed to remember where he was and then he pushed her gently away, his blue eyes dark and serious and his rough cheeks slightly flushed. "This isn't the end of this, Sin," he said quietly. "This could still turn bad."

She looked at the doctor for what felt like for a long time, and then said, "I know, Bones, but this is... this is hopeful." Sindari hugged the doctor again and then turned to look at Kirk, who was watching the scene with minimal interest; his eyes kept darting to the doors. "Can we go in and see her?" Sindari asked, knowing the Captain wanted to know the same thing. Although, why he hadn't asked was beyond her.

"If you want. She's not awake."

Kirk pushed past the two people in front of him and into the medical bay, the doors nearly whooshing closed behind him before Sindari and Bones could enter the room as well. He crossed straight to the biobed where Alianna was lying, grey blankets tucked up around her chin. Her dark hair was fanned out beneath her, still matted with blood in a couple spots. The blanket was tented around her middle, where the wounds no doubt were, and, perhaps the most alarming thing about her state, was the bandage on one side of her neck.

"What happened to her neck?" Kirk asked.

"She had a small laceration, probably from a piece of rubble during an explosion."

Kirk nodded and gently lifted the blanket so he could place his hand on her arm. He looked down at Alianna, laying still, her chest barely moving up and down as she breathed. Her skin was pale and her cheeks a little sunken and Kirk knew that if her eyes had been open, they would be the same listless green they had been on the Klingon vessel. As he looked at her, his eyes started to burn, but he wouldn't cry. Sindari, on the other hand, had tears streaming down her cheeks once more and her hand was shaking where she was gripping Alianna's other arm. Bones stepped up beside Sindari and held her other hand. All of them remained silent.

A sudden harsh beeping erupted in the room.

Bones leapt forward, the sudden motion making Kirk and Sindari step back. Alianna's bedside once again flooded with nurses and medical personnel. Sindari and Jim weren't pushed from the room this time, but they were pushed back from the table and Sindari turned her back, not wanting to see her sister being operated on while Kirk couldn't seem to pull his gaze away. He leaned against a biobed on the opposite wall and watched the flurry of motion, seemingly hearing everything from a great distance.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Sindari was saying over and over.

Kirk wrapped his arms around Sindari as she collapsed, all the fight taken out of her. He tried to hush her, but being so distraught himself, he couldn't do a very good job.

"I need her, I need her, I need her..."

"Sin, Sin, it'll be okay," Kirk said feebly.

"It won't be..." Sindari clutched at Kirk's gold tunic, struggling to find the air for a breath. "You don't understand." Sindari's words dissolved into sobs and she clung to Kirk.

* * *

It felt like someone was simultaneously sitting on her chest and gripping her lungs and neck tightly. Pain lanced through her middle with every feeble breath and she wasn't sure she could feel her legs. She kept coming in and out of consciousness, blurry figures dancing around the edges of her vision and unintelligible words floating around her ears. Every time she opened her eyes, Alianna tried to pull herself back to consciousness, but she couldn't seem to remain awake.

"Ali," a somewhat familiar voice whispered as she opened her eyes again. She felt lips move against her ear. "Ali, come on, wake up..."

She forced her eyes open again, but couldn't focus on whoever was beside her bed. Alianna could feel a hand in hers and another hand on her shoulder. She concentrated on that feeling and tried to use it to bring herself back. Her eyes shut again, seemingly of their own accord, and she cursed in her head. "Fuck..." she managed as her eyes opened again. "I hurt..."

Laughter reached her ears, familiar and comforting.

That helped, more than anything, to bring her back into herself. "Jim?" she croaked.

Kirk appeared above Alianna's face and, as he came into focus, she saw a small grin on his lips that made her smile. "Hey," he said. He cupped her cheek in his hand.

"What... what happened? Where's Sin?"

Kirk disappeared from her vision and just when Alianna was about to start asking where he'd went, he reappeared a very bleary-eyed Sindari at his side, her red hair sticking up in every direction. The younger Lordeck opened her mouth to say something, but only a sob came out and she put her head down on the bed beside her sister and cried, one hand taking her sister's and holding it as tightly as she could. Alianna winced.

"Sin, I think you're hurting Ali," Bones said from somewhere away from the table.

Sindari gasped and let go of her sister. "Sorry," she sobbed.

"It's okay." Alianna coughed. "Can I have some water? And can someone tell me what the fuck happened?"

Sindari tilted a cup of water to her older sister's lips and wiped her chin when some of the water dribbled down her chin. Bones and Kirk helped the patient up until she was sitting and piled some more pillows behind her back. The doctor and Kirk took turns explaining how she'd been caught by some rubble as the ship exploded and how they hadn't been sure if she'd survive the transport back to the _Enterprise_. According to Bones, her surgery hadn't been easy, especially with the limited power to the medical bay, and there had been a few times she's almost died and once when she'd been legally dead for almost a minute. But she was stable now and this was the first time she'd been awake in almost two days.

After having all her questions answered, it was Alianna's turn to start talking. Sindari wanted to know why their father had been on the Klingon vessel. It took much longer than it should have to explain because Sindari kept making Alianna back up and tell certain parts again. She couldn't believe their father would abandon the Federation and work with Klingons. The hardest part for Sindari was when Alianna told her that their father had killed their mother. Sindari didn't want to believe that their mother—who had always treated Sindari a little better and had always paid more attention to the sibling who didn't make their father so angry—was gone.

After a while, after Sindari had stopped freaking out and crying, Bones took her and they disappeared, leaving Kirk and Alianna alone in sick bay. Kirk had produced a rolling chair and set it by Alianna's bed and he hadn't left in several hours. The ship had almost reached Earth and they would be pulling into dry dock in a couple hours and then Alianna would have to endure a transport shuttle ride to the hospital on Starfleet Academy's campus; upon hearing of her injuries and the conditions which she had been operated on under, the doctors there had wanted to check her over, regardless of Bones' insistence that she was doing perfectly fine.

"Ali," Kirk said.

"Yeah?" she asked around a mouthful of food she was chewing meticulously.

"How would you feel about spending your recovery time with Spock Prime?"

"What?"

Kirk sighed and shifted on his chair. "Spock Prime is Spock from another timeline—"

"I know all that, but why would I want to spend time with him?" Alianna paused for a moment and then said, "Oh no, Spock did this! He wants me to have emotional control training or whatever, doesn't he?" She huffed and without giving her Captain time to explain, she continued. "Do you think this would be a good thing?"

It was Kirk's turn to sigh. "I do, Ali. If you had been a little more level headed..."

"What? I might not have ended up injured?"

"You might not have shot your dad."

Alianna was silent for several very, long moments, staring at her food. When she spoke, she didn't say anything about her father. Instead she said, "Fine. I'll go to New Vulcan or wherever the hell Spock Prime is."

Kirk nodded and sensing the security chief wanted to be alone, he got to his feet and headed to the door. As they slid open, however, he turned and looked over his shoulder. "Ali."

"What?" she snapped.

"I'm really glad you're okay."

* * *

**Author's Note.**

Oh, another Mass Effect reference... Man, they just sneak in everywhere, don't they? Let's see who can spot it!

Anyways, this fic was published separate and not as an epilogue of Ain't No Rest For The Wicked because I just felt it was better on its own. So yeah, I know I left it hanging, but how many of you really thought that Alianna was going to die? She's my main Star Trek OC, so why would I kill her? But it's always nice to throw in some tension, right?

So anyways, the next Star Trek related thing I'll be publishing will be Alianna's recovery on New Vulcan, titled Intermission. And then, after that, the main sequel, The Beginning Is The End, although I have to still do some serious planning on that one. I only have a general plot done, but I'm going to work on some other fics first. So... you'll just have to tide yourself over with this and Intermission. Oh, and the Christmas fic, Home For Christmas.

I hope you enjoy this fic, because I really like it.

**Up Next: Intermission. **Alianna arrives at New Vulcan and meets Spock Prime, who is much more human than she expected and who she likes a lot more than the Spock of her timeline. While on the arid planet, she learns a lot about herself and her crewmates on the _Enterprise_ and is given the tools to make some very important decisions about her life.


End file.
